Making Data Useful For Soccer Management

Managers in sporting disciplines such as Baseball and Basketball know that the use of data provides a view against which tactics can be checked and diagnoses for outcomes made. However, their contemporaries in soccer have not yet been convinced of the value of the intense use of statistics. And while I am convinced that a degree of insights could be extracted from the use of statistical techniques, it is yet unclear how to deploy this data in the arena of soccer. This is because soccer has far too much variety and possibilities that make it difficult to design neat algorithms that predict outcomes accurately.

It is this dilemma of making use of the trove of data on soccer that has faced many coaches during the ongoing World Cup 2010 tournament in South Africa. Thomas Kaplan of NYT describes the situation that obtains and the difficult decisions that coaches have to make regarding what data choices to incorporate in their strategy.  There is obviously scope for use of data in decision making for tactics and other sports management issues but designing of those algorithms will still take a while. 

Use of data to determine decisions such as the value of a player, the methods of training and conditioning of players are already well-developed.  In spite of books such as this, the envy that soccer coaches have for baseball is justifiable. Number crunchers will need to find the metrics that matter most.